It's enough to turn your stomach. Or, if you're a New Yorker who lived through the September 11th attacks, give you a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. An ad, purportedly for the World Wildlife Fund in Brazil, although the U.S. WWF has strongly condemned it -- that features dozens of airplanes converging on lower Manhattan, with the line "The Tsunami Killed 100 Times More People Than 9/11."

The ad was first brought to our attention by Gothamist, but was originally picked up by Adweek.com's AdFreak blog, which reports that the print piece is from the Brazilian arm of the WWF.

Later, it was found that the piece was just for spec, turned out by some questionable creative types at a Brazilian Ad agency.

The 2004 tsunami was a horrible tragedy that killed over 200,000 people, and probably gets less media attention in the West than it deserves, but that's no reason to pick a fight with victims of another horrible tragedy.

AdWeek called the print ad "tasteless and nightmarish," but that's putting it mildly.

The final line in the ad is "The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."

AdFreak notes that the ad won an award in the "public awareness sector" and is credited to agency DDB Brazil for WWF-Brazil -- but said it ran in Israel, of all places.

A representative for the US headquarters of WWF said they had been unaware of the offensive poster until today.

"We strongly condemn both the message and the images portrayed," said the WWF-US spokesman Steve Ertel when first asked about the advertisement.

Later, the organization issued an even stronger worded statement saying:

"WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day," the statement said.

For its part, the ad agency DDB also moved to distance itself.

“The ‘Tsunami’ ad for World Wildlife Fund Brasil was created by a team at DDB Brasil in December 2008. The team in question is no longer with the Agency. DDB Brasil apologizes to anyone who was offended or affected by the ad. It should never have been made and it does not portray the philosophy of the agency.”

First Published: Sep 1, 2009 12:42 PM EDT

Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:58 pm

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

That ad is grossly insensitive, and approaches awareness from a terrible angle. There's a better way to get people to care about natural disasters and their very severe effects.

Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:03 pm

b. dolanFBI agent

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 5714

horrific ad, but a striking image. looking at it makes my pulse skyrocket and makes me feel like i might have a panic attack. heh.

Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:36 pm

tommi teardrop

Joined: 12 Apr 2007
Posts: 2222
Location: Las Vegas

They obviously don't know the value of american lives.

PETA should hire these guys immediately.

I get what they are saying and I think it's worth talking about. Probably would have made more sense if it was in reference to a human led atrocity in Africa or somewhere else we don't care about.

It would be one thing if the tsunami was caused by global warming or some other man made problem, but from my google search minutes ago, that doesn't seem to be the case. I could be wrong though and if so, it does make sense to parallel our reaction to the perpetrators of 9/11 and the perpetrators of global warming.

But if the planet would exert its force with things like tsunamis no matter how we treat it, then this ad doesn't make a lot of sense.

The image is great though.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:05 am

Mikal kHill

Joined: 29 Jun 2002
Posts: 6852
Location: http://mikalkhill.com

That would make awesome backside-of-an-album art...

-kHill

Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:24 am

futuristxen

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 19377
Location: Tighten Your Bible Belt

Mikal kHill wrote: That would make awesome backside-of-an-album art...

-kHill

I know right.
Or a frontside of an album if you're the coup.

I think it's a pretty intense image. I would watch that movie. It would involve Wesley Snipes have to jump through Nick Cage's brain ala John Malkovich into each plane to stop what...200 terrorist plots.

And then at the end, he punches a tsunami with his vampire smighting fist and taunts it with some sort of pithy one liner like "motherfucking snakes aren't gonna hang me out to dry".

Tracy Morgan would play his contact on the ground, and he would be...FLIPPING OUT. Like the whole movie.

This should probably go in the "interesting wikipedia links thread" but it fits here too.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:04 am

cakes

Joined: 15 Dec 2006
Posts: 2586

b. dolan wrote: horrific ad, but a striking image.

certainly.

they probably thought up the image first and decided it was awesome. i'm pretty sure the tsunami wasn't claimed as a terrorist attack. kinda not the same thing at all. i get so frustrated when people compare unrelated variables. especially when you're trying to criticize. people do that way too often. if anything, Katrina would have been a better start, but i still think it's a raunchy, counterproductive approach.

no reason to belittle to get any humanitarian point across. is it criticism of response, aid in rebuilding, or validation the producers are looking for?

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:31 am

Brynjar

Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Posts: 1476
Location: Rivertown

Great ad, should make people from US think for a sec.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:36 am

futuristxen

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 19377
Location: Tighten Your Bible Belt

Oh and it sucks that the WWF has to apologize for shit it didn't even do. Should be some lawsuits in order I think.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:38 am

Sarcastro

Joined: 27 Sep 2002
Posts: 3281

Brynjar wrote: Great ad, should make people from US think for a sec.

about what? I agree with cakes, the two aren't that related. It's the equivalent of saying why don't people care as much about car accident fatalities as they do about murders. Sure people are dying in both cases and in the former far more people are dying but one is an accident while the other one is a deliberate act.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:39 am

cakes

Joined: 15 Dec 2006
Posts: 2586

Brynjar wrote: Great ad, should make people from US think for a sec.

about what really? to feel bad for not trying to start a war over it?

edit: yea, what sarcasto said. there's no demand for an alternative. because we didn't talk about it enough? if you're criticizing the response, ok, but I suppose I can't read the other text.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:41 am

futuristxen

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 19377
Location: Tighten Your Bible Belt

Sarcastro wrote:

Brynjar wrote: Great ad, should make people from US think for a sec.

about what? I agree with cakes, the two aren't that related. It's the equivalent of saying why don't people care as much about car accident fatalities as they do about murders. Sure people are dying in both cases and in the former far more people are dying but one is an accident while the other one is a deliberate act.

Aren't the more violent tsunamis somewhat linked to global climate change brought on by the action or inaction of our silly species as it pertains to the environment? Which is a bigger threat than terrorism really.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:47 am

cakes

Joined: 15 Dec 2006
Posts: 2586

maybe, maybe not. the link is theoretical, no? can we, without a doubt, say that it wouldn't have happened if we didn't use plastic? enough to the point that it resembles terrorism? should all lung cancers theoretically related to second hand smoke be considered homocides?

you can probably say, with as close to exact certainly that's mathmatically possible, that that exact plane, on that exact day, at that exact moment would not have hit the building without the terrorist taking over the controls. however, whether or not it could be related to global warming, there is no way you can say that exact tsunami was and what exactly is to blame.

edit: besides, a nuclear war could destroy mankind before global warming for all we know. point is, not comparable enough to make any blanket statements.

Last edited by cakes on Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:57 am; edited 1 time in total

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:51 am

Sarcastro

Joined: 27 Sep 2002
Posts: 3281

futuristxen wrote: Aren't the more violent tsunamis somewhat linked to global climate change brought on by the action or inaction of our silly species as it pertains to the environment? Which is a bigger threat than terrorism really.

Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:54 am

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